BJP dividing Hindus, painting Maharashtra as anti-Hindu: CM Uddhav Thackeray

Sanjay Raut said that those who are now praising Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had once insulted the saffron clothes he wears.

Mumbai: Shiv Sena on Saturday launched an attack on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of their public rallies in Aurangabad and Mumbai, respectively, on Sunday. Taking on the BJP, Sena chief and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray accused the party of dividing Hindus in the country.

Uddhav Thackeray said that the BJP was painting Maharashtra as anti-Hindu as it did in West Bengal and Kerala. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

In a veiled attack on Raj, Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that those who are now praising Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had once insulted the saffron clothes he wears. The attack on Raj and BJP came a day after Uddhav Thackeray asked party leaders to go on the offensive against the two parties.

In a virtual address to the party’s district presidents and sampark pramukh of north Maharashtra, Konkan and Westen Maharashtra, Thackeray said that the BJP was painting Maharashtra as anti-Hindu as it did in West Bengal and Kerala. Thackeray’s address was in the backdrop of the second phase of the Shiv Sampark Yatra, which will be kicked off in these regions on May 25.

“We always say that Maharashtra shows the direction to the country. Now, Maharashtra should show the direction again... It is the BJP’s conspiracy to divide Hindus, Marathis and non-Marathis in Maharashtra,” Thackeray said in his virtual interaction with Sena district chiefs, who were present at Sena Bhavan.

Speaking to media persons, Raut said that Thackeray spoke on several issues. “The Sena chief gave a message to all the party functionaries to not lag in strengthening the organisation in the state. A counter-attack will have to be launched on the attacks [on us]; we will have to tear off masks of those who are bogus. We will fight against the duplicate Hindutvawadis. They (duplicate Hindutvawadis) come and go, but we are here to stay. They do not pose any challenge to us,” he said.

Slamming BJP, Raut said it needed a “booster dose” of Neo Hindutva therefore, a rally has been organised on Sunday in Mumbai. The rally will be addressed by former chief minister and leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis. “They (BJP) need a booster dose as their Hindutva is superficial. We are not concerned about it,” he said.

In response, Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye slammed Thackeray saying he had kept Hindutva “mortgage for the sake of power”.

“Those who give lipservice on Hindutva should not speak about our Hindutva. For BJP, Hindutva is our soul,” Upadhye said, adding that the Sena chief had asked his spokesperson to give a befitting reply to opponents while he works from home.

On the MNS’ shift to Hindutva, Raut said that they have “donned the skin of Hindutva”, while Shiv Sena has never used its ideology for political gains. To corner Raj over his comments against Adityanath, Raut said, “You should look at your (MNS) leader’s statements on the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The ones who called him a bald person who roams in a saffron cloth are going to Ayodhya now”.

“We want to see how Yogi welcomes them. The ones who insulted the saffron clothes of Yogi have now turned Hindutvawadi. If I speak more on this, then it would become difficult for you to move out of your home,” Raut said, adding that the MNS was not connected with the demolition of Babri Masjid and the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Reacting, MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande said, “It seems that Uddhav has trouble with his memory. In 1992, he was engrossed in photography, while Raj saheb was touring Maharashtra with Balasaheb.”

At a party gathering in December 2018 in Vikhroli, Mumbai, Raj had made personal remarks at UP CM Yodi Adityanth calling him ‘bald’ and taking potshots at him for calling Lord Hanuman a Dalit. “That bald person who roams in a saffron cloth... I don’t know what kind of CM is he.. he has not made a single statement for the welfare of the state,” Raj had said.

With its back against the wall, Shiv Sena is expected to go on the offensive against MNS and BJP, who are trying to corner the party over Hindutva ideology. Raut said that Thackeray had asked them to tackle the ones who are trying to poison the atmosphere in the state. The party had so far exercised restraint as it was in power, but now it would fight back.

“The atmosphere in Maharashtra is being vitiated in the name of religion by some parties. There is an extension conspiracy to defame Maharashtra and Shiv Sena by some anti-social organisations. They want to destabilise Maharashtra and create hurdles before the state government. Uddhav Ji told us that it is important to respond to these,” he said.

“Responding in a tit for tat manner is in our nature... Because we are in power, we exercised restraint in certain things till now. But they have crossed all limits so we have to tackle them. We don’t need to be coached to fight, neither do we need people on rent to fight,” Raut added.